Book Description

This selection, made by Williams himself, includes work from his five individual volumes published at intervals over the past twenty years. His first volume, Symptoms of Loss, which he published at age twenty three, immediately attracted attention, and his subsequent volumes have all justified the early acclaim and have established and extended his reputation. Selected Poems reveals how completely Williams has developed his own personal style, writing with lyricism, humor, and sensitivity, about an ever-expanding range of experience and emotion. He has the rare ability to render the details of his subject--often painful or problematic subjects--with both candor and delicacy.